


Be Forever, Gintaman

by gintokiu



Category: Gintama
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Feelings, Fluff and Smut, Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-15 18:16:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19301158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gintokiu/pseuds/gintokiu
Summary: Hijikata's been away for a month on a training retreat and Gintoki spends the day with the people he loves.





	Be Forever, Gintaman

**Author's Note:**

> To all the good times.

Gintoki wakes up, the sun in his eyes and the sound of Kagura yelling loudly about her favorite game show in the background. Basking in the morning rays, he throws the covers off of him, the sun’s heat both refreshing and relentless. He stays like this till the warmth nearly lures him back into sleep, however his alarm clock is having none of it. He rolls his head over, simultaneously pushing down the button to turn it off when the date catches his eyes. 

June twentieth. 

Gintaman was ending today. 

It had been teased so many times but it was actually ending today. A very sad time. He would have to pick up a Jump Giga on their job at some point so he could catch the ending now and not have to wait till they go to the barbershop again.

But today wasn’t all bad, no. June twentieth, a day to smile about because Hijikata came back today. 

It had been almost a month since they last spent time with each other with Hijikata being gone on a training retreat. Needless to say, he was relishing in the return of his chain smoker. Of course, it wouldn’t be till tomorrow that Hijikata and himself actually would be able to get together because of his officer having to sort out all the paperwork and catch up on work once he got home, but he was looking forward to his return nonetheless.

Getting up and changing into his black shirt and pants, he opens up the door to see Kagura, legs crossed, eyes pulled down by her fingers, groaning as she sat on the table watching her show. 

“They’re idiots, Gin-chan!” She throws her hands up dramatically. “All of them! I mean, who chooses to pick a consinate over an unused vowel when it comes to Wheel of Hangman?!”

“A simpleton, that’s who.” He retorts back, going to sit on the couch and watch with her as Shinpachi cooked breakfast in the kitchen. 

“They’re probably getting paid behind the scenes.” Shinpachi chimes in, flipping over an egg before laying it on the rice. 

“Ohoho, they’re getting paid alright! It’s dirty business behind these game shows. Dirty crooks, the lot of them.” She crosses her arms with the declaration, eyes not straying from the TV as they glared. “I bet they don’t even get the millions of dollars they win. I bet they have specific payrolls, and they’re just people they picked up off the street and got to sign an NDA!” 

Gintoki chuckles as he watches her mutter speculations under her breath, Shinpachi walking into the kitchen with the three bowls of egg and rice he’d just cooked, telling Kagura that there was more in the kitchen for her when she wanted it. Shinpachi sits down on the other couch, and they watch the rest of that episode of Wheel of Hangman, the three of them coming up with all sorts of hypotheses on what went on behind the scenes of modern day game shows.

When the end credits start to roll, Shinpachi sturs the two of them up, telling them that they had to go meet a lady with a job for them later in front of the new ice cream parlor by the bowling alley. It takes an arm and a leg for Kagura to get dressed and ready, Gintoki having to brush her hair for her as she washed her face. Thankfully, her hard Yato head was used to Gintoki’s pulling on it as he was too used to pulling on his own tuffs of perm daily. 

Eventually, the three set out for the parlor, Gintoki sliding his bouken in place as they walked down the stairs. Kagura peeks her head into Otose’s bar to say hi and Shinpachi waves awkwardly also. Gintoki just meets eyes with her, the old hag reapplying her lipstick in the reflection of a sake glass. She smiles at them when done, Cathrine saying something about Gintoki’s appearance like she usually did. He flips her off and they actually head out, the sun beating down on the streets of Edo hotter than any other day of the summer so far, making him wish he’d only worn his yukata today rather than the entirety of his usual getup.

The parlor is not too long of a walk, but with how hot the weather was, when they finally got there it felt like hours of tension was released from his shoulders when the cool air hit his face; not to mention the array of sweets that lay so helplessly before him, only protected by a small, simple monetary exchange. A monetary exchange that they did not have the actual money for. What was new? 

The lady behind the counter waves, calling them over. “You guys must be the Yorozuya Gin-chan, yes?” She says ecstatically, ice cream scooper in hand. 

“We are.” Gintoki says in return, watching a small piece of leftover strawberry ice cream fall off of the scooper. An absolute shame.

“And you must be Gin-chan! Well, I need three things from you guys. Well, technically one task, but I need you to buy me three new summer dresses!” The woman states, “I don’t care what they look like as long as they fit well and capture a fun summer in the colors!” Gintoki accepts and she tells them her size, taking off her glove and handing them a little over a ten thousand yen to buy the dresses. 

“And if you come back with three good dresses that fit right, you can have some free ice cream on us! But be careful with that size! Depending on what the store is it can change, you hear?” 

Gintoki and Kagura look at each other, the glances knowing and determined. Simultaneously, the two say with a salute, “You can count on us.” 

After that, the trio heads out once more into the hot Edo sun. In the back of his mind, he wonders if where Hijikata was was just as hot as here, but Kagura doesn’t give him much time to think on it as she quickly ducks into a store with sundresses displayed in the windows. They’re not but two businesses down from the ice cream shop and she’s already making good progress, he was proud. That made it easier on him, too. After all, he didn’t consider fashion as his specialty. 

Both Shinpachi and himself chase after her, the wallet in his pocket feeling heavier than it ever had. She’s already picking out dresses, something a little out of character from her usual tom-boyish, nose picking demeanor. Kagura holds her pick out in the size that the woman said she usually wore and holds it up for comparison. 

Suddenly, as if a light bulb went off in her head, she says, “Shinpachi! Try this on!” 

“Wha-! Wh-what?!” He holds up his hands defensively, cheeks tinting red as he frantically checked around the store to see if anyone had heard her. “Why me?!”

“Because you and that lady wear the same size.” She states back, a no-nonsense look in her eyes. 

“W-we do not!” He retorts, and looks to Gintoki quickly for help. 

Unfortunately for him, he finds no in the eyes of the perm. Gintoki, who was a desire driven man most of the time, still had the lingering image of watching wasted ice cream fall helplessly to the floor just mere minutes ago. “Patsuan, I think you need to get in that dressing room and try on that dress.” Gintoki says, flicking some ear wax off his finger and onto the shop’s floor. “After all we have a lot of money riding on this, don’t we?” Kagura shakes her head agreeingly to his words. “Besides weren’t you the one that took this job for us in the beginning?” 

“Fine!” He snatches the hanger from her hand, folding it up against his chest. “But only because I took the job!” 

Shinpachi storms off, Kagura calling out to him, telling him to show it to them when he was done changing. Gintoki and his mini partner in crime fist bump, walking after Shinpachi to the dressing room. When he finally comes out, his face is beet red all the way to his ears, and he stutters out a short _“it fits.”_

The dress is a dip-dye ombre red, orange, and light blue. It would look great on Pachi, Shinpachi’s cross-dressing character, who looks like their client a little bit, Pachi and the woman both sharing similar hairstyles. 

“Can I please take this off now we know it fits?!” He says, and Kagura gives him the approving head nod. Soon enough, they’ve purchased the dress and head out the door to find the next dress. They’re doing good on money, the ombre one only costing them just a little over two thousand yen to buy. 

He’s letting Kagura do all the hunting, and it’s a long time before they find another store with a dress that she liked in the size that they needed. Kagura drags Shinpachi into the boutique to make him try on another item, but Gintoki is too caught up at the vending machine beside the store to follow them in. He inserts his last two hundred and fifty yen, getting a small pack of Mayoboro cigarettes and stuffing them in his pocket for later. 

“Smoking is bad for you, you know?” A voice says behind his back, making Gintoki jump. “Calm, Gintoki! I didn’t mean to scare you.” Katsura laughs, Elizabeth to his right throwing up a sign with the hotline for nicotine addiction. Pfft, he’s definitely got something like that. 

“What’re you idiots doing here?” He retorts, rolling his head to get the stress out from his neck. “Gin-san is a very busy man, you know.” 

“We were just passing by, that’s all.” Katsura says, eyes roaming down into the bag. “Why do you have a woman’s dress? Is that a new Paako outfit? Or are you and Hijikata into some weird fetish?” 

“Pfft,” He laughs, “It’s a job.” 

“So you didn’t deny that you and him were into a weird fetish... interesting.” Gintoki rolls his eyes at the comment, waving for Katsura and Elizabeth to follow him into the little store.

“Mmm, a little small, don’t you think?” Kagura says, hand on her chin, critically assessing the dress on Shinpachi’s body. It was a little tighter than the last, definitely looking less like a flowy, fun summer dress and leaning more into the nightgown and clubbing dress area. 

“Yes, quite a bit!” Shinpachi bites, trying to get the dress out of his armpits― his face redder now that Katsura and Elizabeth were watching him. 

“Leader, don’t you think he’ll look better in…” Katsura runs off somewhere, grabbing a dress and returning. “... This color?” 

Kagura nods approvingly, sending Elizabeth off to go get the size they needed. It was a simple yellow dress with red and purple flowers on it, a delicate design that would look good with the client’s long hair. He would never willingly admit that Katsura was better at anything than him, but Katsura was definitely better at styling. That must be why he got along so well with Kagura during their little makeover sessions.

Once the dress in the size up was in Shinpachi’s hands, they all send him back into the dressing room to try it on. When he comes out again, the dress is a much better fit and style for the client than the previous solid colored turquoise dress. Gintoki pays for it as Shinpachi gets redressed, and then the five of them set out for the last time to find the third and final dress. 

It’s nearing noon at this point, the majority of the day spent thinking about ice cream as the sun beat down on his perm. They’d been walking around for about twenty minutes since they bout the second dress, and now Kagura and Katsura were bickering about something in regards to Shinpachi as the dresses, the interaction causing every head that passes by them to turn; including the not-so-welcome ones in Katsura’s case. 

There’s a low ranked Shinsengumi officer that catches wind of the argument, beginning to walk over towards the two. Katsura catches eyes with him and bolts, saying goodbye to the Yorozuya trio as he and Elizabeth ran. Gintoki watches the officer chase after them, shouting for them to stop. Gintoki watches the back of that black uniform run, hand waving in the air, his other hand on the grip of his sword so he could worry less about the sheath hitting his leg as he pursued. 

The image morphs into a familiar one, one of Hijikata chasing the three of them down the street. It’d been a long time since that had happened, with most of the time they spent on the street bumping shoulders as they walked. Gintoki and Hijikata were not outwardly intimate in any way in public, (aside from the occasional illegal fling in back alleys every now and then) so that simple gesture of touching shoulders was enough to keep their desire to be close fulfilled until they were able to go somewhere alone. 

The trio walks just a little bit more before Kagura finally finds a place with some cute dresses, pulling Shinpachi in by his wrist. He smiles at the gesture, following them in. She’s already got three dresses for him to try on by the time Gintoki rounds the corner and she’s holding them up one by one to decide which looks the best. There’s a solid colored salmon colored one with tea leaves adorning it, a light yellow one with watermelon slices, and finally a white one with red cherries. She’s quick to dismiss the salmon one, saying it didn’t compliment his skin as she hung it back up on the rack, holding up the watermelon one simultaneously. There’s a moment where she considers it, he can see that clear enough just by looking at the way her eyebrows furrowed, but she finally decides against it, sending Shinpachi into the dressing room with the white dress. Used to the system by now, Shinpachi goes in without any complaint, trying on the dress and opening the door.

“That’s it! That’s the one!” Kagura exclaims, jumping up and turning to him. “Gin-chan, I can practically taste the ice-cream now!” 

“Me too, but we got to pay for this one quick so we can get over there and get it.” Gintoki says, grabbing the dress as it was thrown from over the door. He makes his way to the counter and pays, leaving their client with four hundred yen and adding the third dress to the single bag. 

Shinpachi and Kagura follow behind him, talking about something Otsuu related but he’s not paying attention because he’d accidentally hit the cigarette pack as he went to put up his wallet, leaving his mind focused once more on how he wished for the smell of that smoke to fill up his room. 

They make it back to the ice cream parlor a little after two, the coolness of the shop hitting their faces with more of a relief than it had the last time they’d entered. Their client waves and jumps, giggling with excitement at their return. She leaves the ice creams to her co-worker, stripping off her gloves and tossing them in the trash as she went to meet them. 

“You’re back!” She says, a lightness in her voice. Gintoki holds up the bag, allowing her to look at the pieces one by one. She cooed at each dress, holding them up on herself to look at. “They’re all so perfect! And I absolutely love the fitting of them all! I’ll tell you what, you get to keep half of what was left of the money, and you still get the ice cream!” She runs around, Gintoki taking out the two hundred yen from his wallet and handing it to her. She holds him their pay for the job, and he graciously accepts, putting it safely away. 

She makes them all a cone, Shinpachi getting a chocolate and vanilla mix, Kagura a cotton candy flavor with way too many sprinkles on top, and himself his good faithful strawberry. They thank her, eating their ice cream on the way back to the apartment. They swoop into the bar, taking up the bar stools as they finished the rest of their cones. Otose welcomes them in with a foul glare and smile, as usual, while Tama was focused on cleaning the floor and Catharine washing tables as they prepared for the night’s influx of customers. 

“Oi, I just washed that counter, don’t get your nasty fingers all over it!” Catharine yells, Kagura putting a finger on the counter just to spite her. She really was a little too much like himself sometimes. The two get into an altercation, Kagura exclaiming she was sleeping at the Shimura’s house tonight because she _“couldn’t bear to be around such a hag of a woman any longer”,_ or something like that. Gintoki wasn’t paying attention at all to anyone, he was nearing the last few precious bites, his focus solely on getting the most out of these final dwindling and sacred strawberry moments.

When he finishes, he tells Kagura he’s going to shower first because she takes forever. Not that she cared, by this time she was too busy putting her hair clips on Tama to hear him. Gintoki excuses himself, throwing his wallet and the cigarettes on the living room table, taking only a few minutes to get rinsed off and ready to spend the rest of the day and into the night watching a new soap opera he’d found yesterday. _Men at Arms,_ a show where all the doctors were women and all the nurses were men, with most of the typical troupes of medical soap operas being reversed but still remaining serious. He was very much looking forward to finishing the first season once Kagura left for the night.

Gintoki walks back down the stairs, not bothering to throw on pants and a shirt under his yukata this time. He sends Kagura up to shower, the only thing she needed to do since she often spent the night with Otae, talking about all sorts of things he didn’t want to know most likely. 

“How are you, Gintoki?” Otose says, pouring him a glass of sake and setting it down before him. 

“Getting by.” He graciously takes the cup, downing the alcohol. “What about you? How many times have you redone your lipstick since we last saw each other?” 

She snorts at the comment, “Asshole, only once.” She lights up a cigarette, the smell prompting his heart’s longing even further. “It’s a bit of a habit at this point. I don’t need to apply it as many times as I do, but I can’t help myself.” She blows the smoke out to the side of her lips, the red of her lipstick circling the cigarette. 

“Is everything you do a habit?” He asks, the question coming from her ritualistic cleaning of already clean glasses that she was currently doing. 

She looks down at her hands, stopping the cloth. “Mmf, I guess a lot of it is. You’ll do it when you get to be my age too.” Gintoki rolls his eyes, watching Shinpachi help Tama with the mopping. _That’s assuming he lives to be that old,_ he thinks to himself, head resting on his right palm. Not too long after that, one of Otose’s regulars, always the first customer of the day since the bar opens at three, comes in and takes a seat at his usual spot, ordering his drink. Gintoki lets Otose tend to her customer, swirling his refilled cup of sake gently in his hand as he watched outside. Kagura eventually comes back down after close to an hour of being upstairs and tells Shinpachi she’s ready to go. The kids leave for the night, Gintoki waving goodbye to them; the bar just now beginning to fill up with Snack Otose regulars, many men and women he knew from conversations he had with them previously. 

Every person he knew that came in had something to say, something to catch him up on, some had jobs, others had pets die, it was all over the place― as per usual at the bar. Chaotic but homely, that was the best way you could describe the atmosphere to anyone who didn’t know. He talks to person after person, staying away from too much alcohol for the first time in forever. Once the sun is setting, it’s orange ball already halfway down on the horizon, the bar’s seats are all full so he waves goodbye and sets off toward the stairs. 

_Men at Arms_ is already on his mind when he opens the door, his nose catching the scent of cheap Mayoboro cigarettes. _It must be his imagination,_ Gintoki tells himself, allowing his hearts fluttering to calm down as he shuts the door behind him. After all there’s no way―

He rounds the corner, a puff of smoke blown out from familiar lips. 

Hijikata is on the couch, one leg propped up on the table as he smoked, eyes locked onto Gintoki’s own. Gintoki breathlessly says the other’s name, the ending syllables trailing off in his mix of surprise and happiness. Hijikata only smiles back, leaning up and putting out his cigarette on the sake bottle he’d brought. 

Slowly, he makes his way over to his officer, Hijikata’s hand trailing up his arm as Gintoki leaned down to kiss away the days of longing. Hijikata’s other hand makes it’s way up to pull on tuffs of still slightly damp perm, drawing him in as close as he could get. He slides a leg in between Hijikata’s own, the kiss escalating until they were finally forced to break for air. 

“You taste like sake and strawberries,” The officer huffs, “what’s more characteristic?” 

Gintoki laughs, allowing his hand to caress the side of Hijikata’s neck. “And you still taste like mayonnaise and cheap cigarettes.” 

“Pfft, like I’d ever lose that.”

“You won’t.” His lips trail down the officer’s chest, kissing, biting, leaving marks in their wake. Everything is gentle, like if he pushed too much Hijikata would vanish from between his fingertips for another month. The officer didn’t seem to mind the change of pace either, relishing in the caring touches as he sat up, pulling Gintoki by his hair into another kiss. 

Every touch is full of passion, full of love. Love that could never be captured with any other random body he’d seduced for a night, love that could never be let go of. It was a love that sent shivers up his spine and rendered him speechless in its glory. In _Hijikata's_ glory. Gintoki had never been a religious but Hijikata made him think different, made him think that the only way a man could be this addicting was by the gods making. 

Sure, they bickered and fought enough to make any unknowing bystander think they were rivals at heart but to the two of them, the bickering was just another conversation, just another way to say _I care about you, asshole._ That word, love, they hadn’t said it and they didn’t need to; it was conveyed through the unnecessary touches and the way their eyes couldn’t stay off each other, through the late nights spent awake and silent in bed, listening to the crickets outside. They both knew what they had, they didn't need to vocalize it. 

Slowly, he undoes Hijikata’s yukata belt, nails gently grazing over the sides of his torso. He’s not rushing anything tonight, no matter how much the staggered breaths and quiet sounds trailing from the officer’s lips make him want to. If there were in fact gods then he was long overdue on his worshipping, so he makes a silent promise to do all he can for the man before him in their glory. 

Gintoki looks up, lips still kissing and marking wherever they went, and Hijikata frowns back at him― much to his confusion. “Oi, don’t make this sad.” The officer says, a faint smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “You’ve got that look on your face like this is the last time we’re ever gonna see each other.”

Distantly, Gintoki thinks _it could be._ He’s so used to losing people he loved, no matter how strong they were; but he quickly pushes those thoughts aside, hands sliding boxers down, eyes watching the rippling of muscle as Hijikata leans up and undoes his own white yukata. He looks damn good bathed in the cool moonlight, and Hijikata pulls him in once more. Speechless, that was all he was tonight. 

He wraps a hand around Hijikata’s length, the moan that interrupts their kiss sinful, every bit as addictive as its creator. The officer pushes him up and off the couch, eyes darkened as they watched Gintoki’s smirk as he was lead toward the bedroom.

“I want us…” Hijikata whispered, falling on top of Gintoki and his futon. “Here.” 

Gintoki says nothing, grin only growing wider as he pulled his partner back in, that hand returning to it’s former job. Hijikata works to get the perm’s boxers down through the challenging distractions, and gives up the moment he gets Gintoki’s cock free. 

“N-now...” The officer stutters, a concerned look flashing across Gintoki’s face. “It’s okay― I can take it.” Gintoki seems to understand and he rolls out from under him, discarding his yukata on the floor behind him as he got up to get the lube. The perm drops it to the side after lathering a much more than generous layer on his hands, applying it to his dick and thoroughly coating Hijikata’s hole. He motions for his partner to flip over, making entirely sure he would not hurt him by stretching Hijikata quickly, against the officer’s order to get on with it. After all, it’s difficult not to rush when Hijikata was prompting him to hurry, caught between his need to satisfy and his sadistic qualities. 

However, he does as he's told, teasing Hijikata’s entrance, enjoying the noises that fall helplessly from the other’s mouth. Slowly, Gintoki begins to push his way in, the hand around his forearm squeezing, nails digging into his skin. God, it’s been too long. Too long away from him.

“Are you okay?” He asks, Hijikata answering with a moan and a quick nod. “You’re pretty loose, miss me that much?” 

“Sh-shuddap...” Hijikata stutters out. “You know I did.” 

Gintoki just chuckles, beginning to move, his hips unhurried in their pace, slow and tormenting. His hand touches it’s way down Hijikata’s back, tracing scars, thumb pressing into hips. It’s magical, the fact that he can do this, to make Hijikata such a mess. He loves it, loves the feeling of it, loves the ride, but most importantly he loves that’s it’s _only him._ Only he can do this to the stingy, tense vice-commander― to get his mouth to moan Gintoki’s name in such sinful and carnal ways. To see his blue eyes darken with need, tearing up as he came. His knuckles whiten as they clutched the sheets. 

Hijikata’s head falls down onto the futon, forehead already beginning to accumulate little beads of sweat. His back is arched, Gintoki’s grip on his hips keeping him steady as he tried to rock back to quicken the pace. Gintoki wasn’t about to let him through, instead flipping him over so they were facing each other as he enjoyed the unhinged delight before him. 

Hijikata grabs onto his bicep, scratching long marks down with his nails on the skin. They’ll be hard to play off in the morning with that being his arm he typically keeps out, but Gintoki is also no stranger to getting out of conversations he doesn’t want to be in. 

The perm gets pulled down into a kiss once more, their teeth hitting together with every thrust but neither one of them seemed to mind. They’re sweating terribly, the intensity from the slow burn catching up to both of them. Hijikata moans a plea for Gintoki to pick up his pace, to which the perm finally complies to; his partner’s arms get thrown around his neck, keeping him close as they worked toward their release. Gintoki whispers _‘I missed you’_ into Hijikata’s ear, and his face roughly gets tugged to Hijikata’s lips as he came. He’s not long after, with the sounds and feelings of Hijikata’s pleasure too much for last any longer in. 

He gets up once he has enough strength and the will power to, running to get a wet warm cloth to wipe all the grime off of Hijikata. Once clean, he laid back down, arm pulling them together. Hijikata makes a sleepy noise, eyes fluttering open to look at Gintoki. 

“I missed you too.” He mutters, and Gintoki just watches him back.

There are many words left unsaid between the two, many words held back by uncertainty, many fears. Hijikata knows Gintoki has these fears, the barriers made to protect himself from loving someone too much. Hijikata has them too, his love for Mitsuba a constant reminder of how feeble and unforgiving life is. 

There’s a look that flashes in the officer’s eyes, something delicate. His mouth opens to speak and then closes, faltering in his conviction. Finally, Hijikata whispers out a light, _“Are you happy?”_

There’s something that runs through Gintoki, something that takes him far back into his childhood as he stared into those blue eyes. Memories of Shouyou, of Takasugi and Katsura, then the war, that pain of loss and heartbreak, prison, then finally meeting Otose. Then the kids. Then reconnecting with Katsura, and meeting Kondo. He brings a hand up to his scar that Hijikata made on him all those days ago and Hijikata seems to understand, letting Gintoki find his words quietly. 

“You know,” He whispers, words faint as they crossed his tongue. “Out of all the scars I have, this one is the only one that doesn’t ache.” Hijikata understands exactly what he’s talking about, because the corners of his eyes wrinkle tenderly at the remark. The scar stood for many things between them, from a rough beginning to an unmatched, unbreakable bond, but the thing it stood for the most was a hope that came from a wound― something they both struggling in finding before they had the connection they do now.

“Do you ever think about telling people?” Hijikata begins, “About us?” 

“I wasn’t going to tell anyone unless you were ready to.” Gintoki whispers back, this conversation one that had been silent between them for a long time.

“We don’t have to tell them,” He starts, “It would be weird.” 

Gintoki chuckles and closes his eyes, understanding where the other was going with his words. “We won’t tell them then.” He pulls Hijikata close, a kiss being planted on his own lips before they fell easily asleep, bathed in the cool moonlight.

-

The next evening comes, and somehow throughout the day's activities, the Snack Otose had accumulated a mass of people. Him and the kids had a job today, where they picked up Katsura, who was dressed as a pirate the whole day, and Elizabeth, and then Otae was off work so she decided to tag along, meaning Kondo “miraculously needed a drink”, dragging Sougo into the equation. 

Hijikata was going to out with him tonight anyway, however with the way things were working out, he got dragged to the bar by Kondo for an entirely different reason. Hasegawa was also in there because he’d apparently “won big” at Pachinko earlier and Sadaharu was chewing on his pant leg as he drank and talked about the win with Otose. Sougo was occasionally bickering with Kagura when she saw him look even slightly in her direction, but most of his time was spent watching Hijikata. Tama and Catharine were talking to Tsukyo, Kyuubei, and Sarutobi about Kagura as Tsukyo braided Kagura’s hair. 

Otae and Shinpachi were catching up, ignoring the attempts Kondo made to talk to her through their conversation. Katsura and Elizabeth were having a drinking battle, and he thinks to himself that Zura must have glued his pirate hat onto his head considering how much he’s throwing his head back and laughing. 

And then lastly there was Gintoki and Hijikata, drinking rather silently on the bar’s counters, taking in the chaos around them as they occasionally poured each other another glass. 

“So danna,” Sougo who had been quiet for a while says, his monotone voice cutting through the mess of sound in the bar. “You two finally decided to let it be known, huh?” 

Gintoki throws his drink back, the clank of the glass hitting the wooden counter vibrating around the now silent room. “Yup.” Is all he says back, and Hijikata pours him another drink. 

He can tell there are people looking around confused, but Otose seems to understand and she takes a long drag from her cigarette with a grin. Kagura actually gets up once her hair is double braided and walks over to Sougo, who surprisingly doesn’t take the opportunity to blackmail her into something for the exchange of information, instead whispering it freely into her ear. 

Kagura shoots up, gasping loudly. “Mayora and Gin-chan have been doing indecent things!” 

Immediately the bar erupts in a series of different levels of emotion, Sarutobi being held back by Tsukyo, her pipe falling on the table as she tried to snatch the kunai away from the ninja's hand. Katsura and Hasegawa pat Gintoki’s back, laughing as they joked about him being old. Katsura had known for a while after seeing Gintoki and Hijikata walk into a hotel one night, but he still reacted like it was his first time knowing, which Gintoki was grateful for. 

Shinpachi’s face was red as he tried to calm down Kagura, who was running around the chaos of the bar yelling about how Hijikata was going to take her and Shinpachi’s place, which would never be true. Otae had migrated over to helping Tsukyo, Tama, and Kyuubei now hold back and unarm Sarutobi. Kondo had taken to crying over Hijikata’s shoulder, saying how he was proud that Hijikata wasn’t going to only focus on work now. 

Otose leans over and pours them both their drink and her own, and she raises it slightly in a silent toast. They had been through so much together, and she had been there with him through many of the worst moments of his life, so he toasts with her, the gesture simple and appreciative.

Life hasn’t always been easy, his scars lining almost every inch of skin can attest to that. The expanse of battles and pain that he’s lived with since he was a child, the amount of blood on his hands, it never was _easy._ There would still be night's he woke up gasping, souls long gone from the world visiting him as he dreamed, there would still be heartache and trials, pain and suffering― but as he looked around, the loudness of the bar ringing through the air, his friends, his kids, and the person next to him, he knows he’s in good hands. After all, Gintama had always been about picking your own family.

**Author's Note:**

> wow. 
> 
> I'm writing this still teary-eyed, snot dripping down my nose as I just finished the last chapter. What a good story, what an amazing ending, what an amazing time we've all had. I think one reason why I'm so attached to this series is that it was always there for me through some of the darkest moments of my life, through dealing with an abusive environment, a mass flood that raged through my house and my city, a break up (which many of you know about and were there for me as well), and so many more shitty things that life throws at me and all of us; Gintama was always there, making us smile and laugh no matter what.  
> Through the many many lessons taught in the series, I believe the one that will stick with me the most is referenced in the Beam Saber arc, that "...people who are truly strong laugh when they want to cry. They endure all of the pain and sorrow while laughing with everybody else." And that lesson, along with the overall aspect of teaching that you can always overcome your past, no matter how dark and unforgiving it was, have truly helped to shape me into the headstrong, happy mess of a person I am today.  
> So with that, there was the little short story I wrote for the ending. Nothing at all compared to the actual end, but I wanted the boys to have a fluffy soft moment that felt in tune with the ending.  
> As for now, I'm Alex, and I'm still going to be the same sap the next time my name crosses your digital screen. Thank you all for keeping this "community" around my writing so caring and kind. I'll see y'all soon, have a great day. <3


End file.
